This is the deal...retained BK attorney about 8 months ago and have paid 75% of total fee now. They do BK and also debt settlement although they push CH 13 BK.
We owe about $120K un-secured although about $30K of that is IRS so that won't go away. (on pmt plan with IRS)
One cc collection company has agreed to $2,200 on a $22K debt (3rd collection agency), another we have barely started talking to and already they are agreeing to $19K on $38K debt. (4th or 5th collection agency)
Another cc is only $6K but has been turned over to attorney and attorney has filed court case. I do not think they still have my app on the cc and I filed answer and think If they can't find it, I will see if I can get it dismissed somehow. The collection attorney called me and wanted me to sign a paper saying that it was my debt and said if I did that they would not do anything. Iasked them what they would take to settle and they wanted me to give all my financial info over phone.. Yeah, right...they must think I am an idiot!
We also have two line of credit accounts that total $25K that we have not paid for five months.
So as far as the cc's reporting the forgiven debt to IRS as income, does our job income come into play with that or is it just our assets to determine if we are insolvent? We are about $50K underwater on our home (did modification so now affordable and want to keep, have $45K homestead exemption in our state). Would that be like $90K altogether that would contribute to our insolvency? What does the IRS accept on the insolvency to show you owe more on house than it's worth? Do we need to hire an independent appraiser or does the IRS send someone out? I tried to ask our attorney but did not get a staright answer on this - more like we'll look at that when it comes up! Before we decide what to do, we would like to know if there's a chance we could end up owing IRS even more money!
I know that it is what you owe v.s. assets but if we settle this first one for $2K and try to keep working with the others, each time we settle one, we will owe less. The line of credit accounts probably won't even consider a settlement for months so I am concerned that by the time they are ready to settle we will have have settled the others. We have about $7K to work with right now to pay cc settlements although we will be getting another $10K in another month through a court settlement. (it was a huge surprise...someone actually has to pay us!) Another concern of course is that if we can't get the big $38K one to settle, then we do not want to throw our money away settling with the others.
Our attorney has (of course) suggested ch 13, debt settlement or just dealing with each one as they file against us. I just want to try to pre-plan and do what is best for us for the long term. We have made a lot of mistakes and I do not want to continue on that path!
We owe about $120K un-secured although about $30K of that is IRS so that won't go away. (on pmt plan with IRS)
One cc collection company has agreed to $2,200 on a $22K debt (3rd collection agency), another we have barely started talking to and already they are agreeing to $19K on $38K debt. (4th or 5th collection agency)
Another cc is only $6K but has been turned over to attorney and attorney has filed court case. I do not think they still have my app on the cc and I filed answer and think If they can't find it, I will see if I can get it dismissed somehow. The collection attorney called me and wanted me to sign a paper saying that it was my debt and said if I did that they would not do anything. Iasked them what they would take to settle and they wanted me to give all my financial info over phone.. Yeah, right...they must think I am an idiot!
We also have two line of credit accounts that total $25K that we have not paid for five months.
So as far as the cc's reporting the forgiven debt to IRS as income, does our job income come into play with that or is it just our assets to determine if we are insolvent? We are about $50K underwater on our home (did modification so now affordable and want to keep, have $45K homestead exemption in our state). Would that be like $90K altogether that would contribute to our insolvency? What does the IRS accept on the insolvency to show you owe more on house than it's worth? Do we need to hire an independent appraiser or does the IRS send someone out? I tried to ask our attorney but did not get a staright answer on this - more like we'll look at that when it comes up! Before we decide what to do, we would like to know if there's a chance we could end up owing IRS even more money!
I know that it is what you owe v.s. assets but if we settle this first one for $2K and try to keep working with the others, each time we settle one, we will owe less. The line of credit accounts probably won't even consider a settlement for months so I am concerned that by the time they are ready to settle we will have have settled the others. We have about $7K to work with right now to pay cc settlements although we will be getting another $10K in another month through a court settlement. (it was a huge surprise...someone actually has to pay us!) Another concern of course is that if we can't get the big $38K one to settle, then we do not want to throw our money away settling with the others.
Our attorney has (of course) suggested ch 13, debt settlement or just dealing with each one as they file against us. I just want to try to pre-plan and do what is best for us for the long term. We have made a lot of mistakes and I do not want to continue on that path!
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